In an effort to be less reliant on petroleum products, considerable interest and research have been spent on developing a renewable elastomer product. For instance, synthetic rubbers often utilize petroleum-based polymer precursors where the monomer is a copolymerized with petroleum products such as styrene and 1,3-butadiene. As such, there is a need to develop an elastomer that are less reliant on petroleum monomers while still maintaining the advantages of physical properties of the petroleum-based elastomer.
One potential renewable resource to be used as a monomer subunit in producing an elastomer is the use of vegetable oils. Vegetable oils have received attention as a natural and renewable resource and one oil of particular interest is the use of epoxidized soybean oil. Use of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) is well known as a plasticizer given the molecule's availability of carbon-carbon double bonds, as well as having oxirane ring moieties. Li, F., Larock, R. C., 2000, J Polym Sci B Polym Phys, 38:2721-38 discloses the preparation of polymers from soybean oil with styrene and divinylbenzene having properties ranging from elastomers to rigid plastics. Chemically modified epoxidized soybean oil, such as acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO), has been widely studied by Khot S. N., et. al, J Appl Polym Sci, 2001; 82(3):703-23. Given these known properties of epoxidized vegetable oil, particularity epoxidized soybean oil, these oils are excellent candidates as a renewable resource monomer units to develop a non-petroleum based elastomer.